There are often situations where a relatively small quantity of confidential or secret data may be more valuable than larger quantities of data (e.g., bulk data) included in a program, system software or database. Examples of such “small secrets” may include cryptographic keys, passwords and the like. Some existing methods for protecting confidential data rely on context switching (e.g., managing and switching paging structures). Such methods, however, are generally burdensome and impose a relatively high computational overhead which can reduce the potential efficiencies that may otherwise be achieved through cryptographic extensions to an instruction set architecture (ISA).
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art.